Research Catalog

Designs of destruction : the making of monuments in the twentieth century

Title

Designs of destruction : the making of monuments in the twentieth century / Lucia Allais.

Author

Allais, Lucia

Publication

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
©2018

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JQF 18-2052	Schwarzman Building - Art & Architecture Room 300

Details

Description

347 pages : illustrations, maps; 27 cm

Summary

The twentieth century was the most destructive in human history, but from its vast landscapes of ruins was born a new architectural type: the cultural monument. In the wake of World War I, an international movement arose which aimed to protect architectural monuments in large numbers, and regardless of style, hoping not only to keep them safe from future conflicts, but also to make them worthy of protection from more quotidian forms of destruction. This movement was motivated by hopeful idealism as much as by a pragmatic belief in bureaucracy. An evolving group?including architects, intellectuals, art historians, archaeologists, curators, and lawyers?grew out of the new diplomacy of the League of Nations. During and after World War II, it became affiliated with the Allied Military Government, and was eventually absorbed by the UN as UNESCO. By the 1970s, this organization had begun granting World Heritage status to a global register of significant sites?from buildings to bridges, shrines to city centers, ruins to colossi.0Examining key episodes in the history of this preservation effort?including projects for the Parthenon, for the Cathedral of St-Lô, the temples of Abu Simbel, and the Bamyian Buddahs ?Lucia Allais demonstrates how the group deployed the notion of culture to shape architectural sites, and how architecture in turn shaped the very idea of global culture. More than the story of an emergent canon, Designs of Destruction emphasizes how the technical project of ensuring various buildings? longevity jolted preservation into establishing a transnational set of codes, values, practices. Yet as entire nations? monumental geographies became part of survival plans, Allais also shows, this paradoxically helped integrate technologies of destruction?from bombs to bulldozers?into cultural governance.

Subjects

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction: monument survival -- "Wardens of civilization": conservation and diplomacy at the 1931 Athens Conference -- "Battles designed to preserve": the allies' lists of monuments in World War II -- Unwitting city planning: maps of monuments and the American bombing of Europe, 1943-1945 -- Bridge: let's visit UNESCO house -- "Stones also die": UNESCO and the decolonization of museums, 1960-1975 -- Integrities: the salvage of Abu Simbel, 1960-1980 -- Coda: viscosities.

Call Number

JQF 18-2052

ISBN

9780226286556
022628655X

LCCN

2018014120

OCLC

1028591586

Author

Allais, Lucia, author.

Title

Designs of destruction : the making of monuments in the twentieth century / Lucia Allais.

Publisher

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.

Copyright Date

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Research Call Number

JQF 18-2052

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